Meyer Lemon Tart with Ginger Snap Crust

Lemon desserts have been a weakness of mine since I can remember. This is the first time I’ve come across a recipe using the entire lemon, rind and all. Well, not the seeds. But you know what I mean. Needless to say, I was intrigued. I gave it a ginger snap crust to add the other flavor that sends me to a happy place. If you prefer, you can use a standard 9-inch tart shell for the crust.

Crust:

1-1/2 cups ginger snap crumbs (about 30 cookies)

¼ cup sugar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ stick unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

1 Meyer lemon (about 4 oz.)

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into chunks

4 large eggs

2 tablespoons cornstarch

½ teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For the crust, combine the cookie crumbs, sugar, salt and butter in a bowl. Once mixture is evenly moistened, press into a 9-inch pie plate. Bake for 10 minutes until firm and golden. Allow to cool slightly while you make the lemon filling.

For the filling, start by washing and drying the Meyer lemon. You will use the whole thing, peel and all, so it should be clean! Thinly slice the lemon and remove all seeds. Place the lemon rounds, sugar and butter into a food processor fitted with the steel chopping blade. Process until the lemon is fully pureed, about a minute. Add the eggs, cornstarch and salt. Pulse until incorporated and batter is smooth.

Pour the lemon filling into the prepared, cooled ginger snap crust. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the filling is set. Jiggle the pan back and forth lightly to check that it’s set. The lemon filling shouldn’t move too much. It will be lightly browned on top. Remove from the oven and allow to cool fully. You may serve it once it is cool, or refrigerate it and serve it fully chilled.

Quick Tips

1. Create finely ground ginger snap crumbs by placing coarsely broken cookies into a food processor and running until desired consistency is reached. My only complaint with this recipe is that I had to wash my food processor in between making the crust and the filling. I hate to have my kitchen mojo interrupted with cleaning! All of this is to say that if you have a reliable method to crush cookies without using the food processor, by God, use it. Save yourself the scrubbing and drying.

2. My tart did not spill over, but it looked like it was going to for a while. I placed a baking sheet underneath it to catch any spills. I suggest you do the same unless you enjoy cleaning burned sugar from the bottom of your oven.

3. Most of the recipes I’ve posted using Meyer lemons will work just fine with regular lemons. Because Meyer lemons have a thinner skin and a sweeter flavor than regular lemons, I can’t guarantee that you’ll get a similar result here if you use a regular lemon. I was initially inspired to make this recipe after seeing something similar on smitten kitchen. Deb insists that you can use a regular lemon for this filling, but warns that you should expect a “stronger [rind] flavor and higher proportion of skin to flesh.” We could really taste the rind here and can only imagine that it would be a lot more pronounced using a regular lemon.

4. To serve, top the tart with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar and if you care to get fancy, a curled piece of lemon zest. I took one piece out while at room temperature, then I chilled the tart and tried again. The pieces will come out more easily when it’s chilled, but they won’t look so nice that you can take a mouthwatering picture and post it on, say, a website.